Fuel-pulverizing apparatus



1. H. COOPER. I FUEL FULVEBlZl-NG APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILAED APR. 7, 1919.

Patented Aug. 23, 1921.

3 SHAEETS-SHEET I.

Patented Aug. 23, 1921.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

J. H. COOPER. FUEL PULVERIZING APPARATUS. APPLIcAnoN FILED APH.7,1919.

Patented Aug-23, 1921.

Eg U

PATENT OFFICE.

JOSEPH H. COOPER, F CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

FUEL-PULVEBIZNG AIPARATUS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 23, 1921.

Original application filed July 20, 191B, Serial No. 245,803. Divided and this application led April 7, 1919. Serial No. 288,007.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOSEPH H. COOPER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chi cago, in the county of Cook and State of Illmois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in F ue1-Pu1verizing A paratus, of which the following is a spec' cation.

My invention relates to fuel pulverizin apparatus and is a division of my co-pen ing application Serial No. 245,803, filed July 20, 1918.' It has for its primary object the provision of improved apparatus for ulverizing coal, lignite, peat and the i ke whereby the fuel dust produced may be distributed directly from the pulverizin chamber'uniformly over a large area. nother object is to provide improved fuel pulverlzing apparatus constructed and arranged for discharging its product directly into an air feeding conduit independent of the hopper and pulverizing chamber of the apparatus. A further object lies in the provision of a compact arrangement and durable construe tion for fuel pulverizing apparatus.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will appear from the following description, taken in. conjunction with the accompanying drawings which form a part of this s ecification and illustrate the preferred embo iment of the mechanical features of the invention.

The apparatus of the drawings illustrates the invention ,as adapted for use on locomotives, though it may be advantageously employed in stationary heating plants.

In the drawingsz. y A

Figure 1 is a fragmentary side elevation of a locomotive and its tender embodying the present invention, rtions being broken away and parts shown m vertical section for clearness.

Fig. 2 is a top 1an of Fig. 1.

Fig. -3 is an enlarged fragmentary Section taken approximately on line 3--3 of Fig. 1 and illustrating the fuel pulverizing and fuel and air mixin ap aratus.

Fig. 4 is a side e evatlon of the 'apparatus shown in Fig. 3 with parts broken .awa and 50 other parts inl vertical section for tter illustration of details.' Y

Fig. 5 is a section on line 5--5 of Fig. 4.

Fig. 6 is a section on line 6-6 of Fig. 3.

Fig. 7 is an edge view of one of the pulverizing disks employed, illustrating a portion of the shaft on which it is mounted and Fig. 8 is a side view thereof.

For convenience in description coal will be considered hereinafter as the fuel being used, though it is to be understood that the invention 1s adapted to the utilization of otherfuels.

Reference numeral 10 indicates generally a railway locomotive having its tender generally indicated at 11. In addition to awatervtank 12, the tender 11 has an open hopper 13 for lump coal which discharges by gravity into -a pulverizing and feedin apparatus general y indicated at 14 in ig. 1 and from which pulverized coal passes through a feed pipe 15 into the locomotive fire-box 16, through an aperture 17 provided in the forward wall of the fire-box. The fire-box may be of any suitable construction for burning pulverized fuel and com rises preferably a grate 18 beneath whic depends a cinder hopper 19 hav' front and rear doors 21 and 224 respective y. Preferably also the rear wall of the fire-box is forwardly 'rojected as at 23 to form an 80 arch where y the flame from fuel enterin the fire-boxA through aperture 17 is 4directed upwardly and forwardly so that it has no gouging effect upon the back sheet 24 of the ocomotive boiler 25. Thebottom of feed hopper 13 discharges through a forwardly and backwardly elongated aperture 26 into a pulverizing chamber 27 defined by front and rear end walls 28 and 29, side walls 31 and 32 and abottom sheet 33"; the hopper 90 andpulverizing chamber being supported on the bed 34 of the tender in any suitable manner, for instance by I-beams 35 shown in Fig. 1. The lower portion of the4 pulverizing chamber is partitioned olf by means of a lhorizontal screen. 36 to forman air chamber 37 which is of shallow depth and rectan ular in outliney as seen in dotted lines in ig. 3. Preferably the'screen 36 comprises a web of sheet metal perforated by slits 38 which in ordinary practice are one.) inch long by 1/10() of an inch in width.

The side walls 31 and 32 are contracted as at 39 and 41. Spaced, horizontall disposed arms 42 proj ect inwardly from wall relation to similar arms'43 which project in wardly from wall 32 in the same p ane at 31 at its 105 contracted portlon 39 and stand in staggered the contracted portion 41. Similarl spaced horizontal arms` 44 project inwardly from wall 31 near the bottom ofpulverizing chamber 27, and oppositely alined with them in the same horizontal plane are similar arms 45 projecting inwardly of the pulverizing j chamber from wall 32; arms 44 and 45 being are carried. Each of the positioned in the upper portion of the widest .part of the pulverizing chamber.

Mounted in suitable bearings 46 carried b the end walls 28 and 29 of the pulverizing cllamber, and with their axes in the plane of arms 42 and 43, are a pair of parallel shafts 47 and 48 which respectively traversethe inner ends of arms 42` and 43` and are spaced very slightly from the ends of those arms. Each shaft carries a plurality of pulverizing disks 49 each secured upon its shaft by a key 51 and comprising regularly spaced, radially extending, spur-like projections 52 between which lumps of coal from hopper 13 fall and projections 52 is frusto-pyramidal and has its corners beveled deeply as at 53 at its outer end, said beveling tapering to practically nothing at the meetin point of adjacent rojections. The base o each projection is, of) course, in-

tegrally merged with the central hub portion of the disk, and the outer end of each projection is preferably curved cylindrically about the axis of the disk, the arms 42, as well as the arms 43, are spaced from each other substantially the thickness of one disk 49, and the shafts 47 and 48 are each provided with as many disks as there are interstices between arms 42 and 43, the disks fitting closely between the arms and being spaced apart to fit closel between each other. Also the spacin of sliafts 47 and 48 from each other is suc that the ends of the projections are very close to the o posite shaft in each instance. The close interfitting of these parts results in a ver fine initial crushing of the lump coal carrie in hopper 13.

Mounted in suitable bearings 54 in the front and rear walls of the pulverizing chamber, positioned centrally of that chamber, and below and in parallelism with shafts 47 and 48, is a driving shaft 55; and on either side ofthe driving shaft and in awcommon plane with that' shaft andthe arms 44 and 45, are a pair of shafts l56 and 57 carried in suitable bearings 58 in the front and rear walls of the pulverizing chamber. Each of the shafts, 55, disks 49, thedisks of shaft 55 interlitting on o posite sides of that shaft with the disks on slliafts 56 and 57, and the disks on the latter two shafts interfitting with the arms 44 and 45 respectively. The spacing of shafts 55, 56 and 57 is also such that there is very little space between the ends of the projections 52 of one shaft and the surface of the adjacent shaft. Preferably the shafts 47 and 48 are so positioned and spaced above 56 and 57 is provided withshafts 55, 56 and 57 that the per heries of the disks on shafts 47 and 48 dip below the horizontal plane tangent to the peripheries of the disks on the other three shafts as seen in Fig. 6, so that fuel thrown downwardly from either of the up r sets of disks traverses a ver short pat before it is caught by the t iree lower sets of pulverizing disks. Preferably also shafts 55, 56 and 57 are so positioned asto bring the peri heries of their respective disks 49 very c ose to the upper surface of the screen 36 in order to prevent any appreciable accumulation of fue dust upon the screen.

A steam turbine, indicated at 59 and fed through a steam pipe 61, drives a inion 62 fixed upon the turbine shaft 63, e pinion meshin with a gear 64 keyed upon shaft 55. The tur ine and other parts just enumerated are located just in front of the forward end of the pulverizing chamber. The ends of shafts 47, 48, 55 56 and 57, outside the front and rear end walls 28 and 29, carry each a sprocket wheel 65, and an endless chain 66 at each end of the chamber passes over the s rocket wheel of shaft 55 and downwardly t erefrom under and around the sprocket wheels of shafts 56 and 57 and thence upwardly over the sprocket wheels of shafts 47 and 48. Preferably shaft 55 rotates counter clockwise as shown by its arrow in Fig. 6, while the chain 66 causes the other shafts 47, 48, 56 and 57 to rotate clockwise.

At its rear end the feedin chamber 37 is formed with a straight wa led, forwardly diverging, end of the feeding chamber terminates in a straight walled, forwardly tapering, outlet passage 68. A bevel gear 69 keyed to the forward end of shaft 55, meshes with a bevel gear 71 keyed upon the operating shaft 72 of a' rotary fan 73, the delivery ipe 74 of which passes backwardly along t 1e bed 34 of the tender to the rear end of the pulverizing chamber where, by means of a suitably shaped conduit 75, it communicates with the rear end of the inlet passage 67 of the feeding chamber. The outlet passage 68 of the feeding chamber discharges into the fuel feed lpipe 15.

In the operation of the invention, lump coal is dumped into the hopper 13 .and rests upon the disks 49 of the shafts 47 and 48 as well as on the arms 42 and 43. Application of steam to the turbine 59 revolves shaft 55 and the other four shafts driven therefrom by the chains 66, the directions of .rotation being preferably as indicated by the curved arrows in Fi 6. The coal is pulverized between the w irling projections 52 of adjac ent shafts and also between those projections and the arms 42 and 43. The coal pulverized by shafts 47 and 48 drops onto the three sets of disks carried by shafts 55, 56 and 57 and onto arms 44 and 45, where it -is more finely pulverized and from which it drops upon, screen 36. While the direction of rotation of the upper disks is such that coal bein crushed is initially carried to the right in gFig. .6 toward wall 31, the rapid whirling of all of the disks together with the reverse rotation of `those disks keyed upon shaft 55 distributes the fuel between the three lower sets of disks; and, after the crushing effect of these latter disks is complete, the resulting fuel dust is evenly distributed by these three lower sets of disks over the screen 36. The force of gravity, aided by the vibrations set up by the action of the pulverizing disks and the rotation of the three lower sets of Vdisks very close to the upper surface of the screen, feeds fuel dust constantly throu h the slits 38 of the screen into the forwar ly moving current of air passing continuously through the air chamber 37. It is to be noted that hopper 13 and pulverizing chamber 27 form no part of the air feeding conduit and that, due to the mass of coal constantly present inthe hopper and pulverizing chamber the air, taking the path of least resistance, passes from end to end of the air chamber 37, neither blowing upwardly through the screen nor causing any appreciable down draft through it. Were the hopper and chamber 27 arranged in series with the air feeding conduit, as a part thereof, the air would pass freely down-through the coal and screen at only a few points perhaps only at one side of the hopper and chamber, while the mass of coal would restrict or prevent passage of air through the'remainder of the screen. This would prevent uniform distribution of coal from all parts of the screen into the air chamber 37 and result in uneven feeding of fuel to the fire-box and the consequent, well known, hindrance to economical firing. Because of the even distribution of the dust over the screen 36. a uniform distribution of fuel dust through this current of airiseifected. Because of the forwardly diverging character of the side walls of the inlet passage 67, the feeding air passes with uniform velocity and in uniform volume beneath the whole area of screen 36 and in its passage is permeated with a uniformly distributed Vmass of powdered fuel. The converging side Walls of outlet passage 68, at the forward end of the feeding chamber, operate to change the cross-sectional contour of the current of feeding air from a horizontally attenuated rectangle to a circle in pipe 15, and this change of contour sets up in Aa positive manner many rapidly interweaving currents of dust laden air in feed pipe 15, so that the distribution of pulverizedv fuel in the feeding air is maintained uniform from the feeding chamber 37 to the fire-box 16,. This is of course a great advan- 66 tage in flring any heating plant, as it reduces to aminimum fluctuations in temperature occuring in the fire-box. By making the projections 52 of the disks 49 frustopyramidal and by beveling their edges as at 53, the lump coal is readily and with great violence struck and pulverized between these projections and the arms 42 and 44. In this operation 'also the arms 43 and 45 are brought into action by reason of the fact that some of the coal is thrown upwardly toward wall 32 and the last mentioned arms by the actions of the disks on shafts 48 and 57. The beveled surfaces of the projections 53 operate as wedging elements to pinch lumps of coal between the projections and the arms and also between the projections of contiguous disks on different shafts. The fuel laden air passing from feed pipe ,j 15 through aperture 17 into the re-box is there ignited and employed for heating the boiler 25.V

Various features ofutility result from the herein described apparatus. One of these is that the apparatus herein described is applicable both to stationary heating plants as well as to railway locomotives and other movable heating plants. A. further feature of utility incident to the even distribution of the fuel through its feeding air and consequent uniformity of fuel produced, lies in the fact that the life of the heating plant operated in accordance with the present invention 'is greatly prolonged, inasmuch as the various metal parts of the plant are not subjected to frequent and rapid iiuctuations'in temperature with the consequent expansions and contractions which are conducive to crystallization and weakening of the metal. By gearing the pulverizing -apparatus directly to the fan producing the feeding air, a 'syn- 105 chronous fluctuation -of the amount of fuel powdered and the amount of feeding air comj pressed results, so that the single operation of oontrolling'the steam passing to the turbine 59 governs the amount of fuel fed to the 110 fire-box while leaving the proportions of air and fuel constant in feed pipe 15.

I claim:

1. In a fuel pulverizer, the combination with spaced'pulverizing disks each compris- 115 ing a hub and a plurality of radially extending frusto-pyramidal projections, of a shaft upon which said disks are fixed, and a rigid wedge shaped arm positioned between said disks and substantially filling the space de-y 120 fined by the disks and the shaft. z

2. In a fuel pulverizer, the combinationjof a plurality of parallel shafts, a series of pulverizing disks mounted u'pon each shaft in spaced relation, each disk comprising a hub 125 and a plurality of radially extending frustopyramidal projections, andan arm projecting radially toward said shafts between adjacent disks and substantially filling the space between said disks.

3. In a fuel pulverizer, the combination of a chamber, a plurality of shafts extending in parallel relation longitudinally of said chamber, a series of pulverizing disks mounted on each shaft, each disk comprising a hub and a plurality of radially disposed projections, the disks on one shaft being disposed between and overlapping the disks on another shaft, and a series of arms projecting from the walls of said chamber inwardly toward and in proximity to said shafts between adjacent disks to substantially fill the spaces defined v by said disks and said shafts.

4. In a fuel pulverizer, the combination of a fuel chamber, a plurality of shafts extending longitudinally thereof, a series of pulverizing disks mounted on each shaft, each disk comprising a hub and a plurality of radially disposed tapered projections, the disks on one vshaft `being arran d in overlapping relation with respect to t e disks on another shaft, and the space between each shaft and the adjacent wall of the chamber being substantially filled by arms projecting from the walls of said chamber toward said shafts between adjacent disks.

JOSEPH H. COOPER. 

